‘When you give yourself a 20-point lead you’d like to think you can hold on to it’

Aaron Cruden was still standing over his first attempt at what would ultimately be the match-winning conversion, but Gordon D’Arcy was already peeling the strapping from his wrists. Draw or lose, at that stage it mattered little.

The win had gone. Slipped into the ether like a whisper in the wind.

When Ryan Crotty touched down in injury-time to bring the scores level the worth of everything Ireland had achieved in the 80 minutes that preceded it devalued like a Weimar banknote. You can be sure that Joe Schmidt and his boys will harvest a ton of good from this, but only in time. For now, the pain is too raw to find succour in the memories or DVDs that bear witness to three tries or the succession of punishing hits.